Westeros & Essos

I have discussed a new Westeros map with the staff and we decided to make a version more like the official maps and with less territories, with the inclusion of the 9 Free Cities of Essos. The map is not finished, but I would like some feedback good or bad and to know what the peeps think of game-play with suggestions as well as bonus values. There are still many forests, mountains and hills to be added, but at the moment I am more interested in Game-Play, Colours, Fonts, Tones, Textures and Aesthetics, as well as Errors. Westeros has very few cities even though it is said to be scaled to the size of South America, so it was difficult to find some territory names. However, all are taken from the various official maps. Take no notice of any unevenness or tiny gaps in territory dividers, these might have to change if game-play dictates and will be redone. A 94 territory map will also be made soon to replace the old Westeros map. [spoiler=Part of HBO official map for reference][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/Westeros-682x1024.jpg[/img][/spoiler][spoiler=Current D12 Westeros for reference][img]http://www.dominating12.com/image/map/36.large.jpg[/img][/spoiler][spoiler=New Westeros 1 without circles][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/Westeros_1_No_Circles.png[/img][/spoiler][spoiler=New Westeros 1][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/Westeros_1.png[/img][/spoiler]

56 territories. Did I count right? I'll have to comment about the style some other time. For now I'll just mention that the map is missing the wall in the north it should be an impassible I guess. I haven't read the books and only watched up to season 3 and that was awhile ago so I am no expert. Do we have any experts out there that can assist with this map? We want it to be accurate and contain all the elements that would be important to fans.

If every colored port can attack each other, I won't be inputting this map :P The font you chose is nice, but difficult to read.

Poor Thorpe. Also, one less map with >90 territories. Looks good though.

56 Territories is what the senior staff agreed for this map. The wall is there, but its not labelled and not an impassible. I originally wanted to draw the wall, but thought it needed to be a region border instead for connectivity. However, it might be better to draw it to be even more in keeping with the story map. The anchors were the last thing on and I think there are a few too many. I was trying to avoid a spiders web of connection lines, but will at least connect the islands within a region and remove a couple of anchors. The font is similar to the story map font. Unfortunately it is a difficult font at small sizes, so I might have to find a more readable alternative. I will draw the wall, remove some anchors and change font and repost.

Also looking at it myself, I feel the inner land shadow effect should go. I can already see many changes required for the ports.

The old westeros will remain playable at least until we get another 90+ to replace it.

This map is actually a lot more accurate than the one Thorpe made, and the regions actually represents political regions, so that is pretty cool :) I would not call myself an expert, but I read all the books and watched the series, so I suppose I can provide advice as well as any. Regarding the style: I don't like how the anchors look right now, they are really small, but before meddling into details: I like the general style you chose. Really different from what we used to have, but fitting enough I think. There is just one thing that bothers me, which is the colours. The brownish areas (e.g. The North) look naturally coloured, while all the regions in different colour do not. This makes the map look like some areas are coloured, while others aren't. I like the little touches you gave wih the trees, mountains, and hills. Would it be possible to also mark major castles and cities on the map? This might also slightly improve the emptyness of Essos. I really think the eastern continent stands out too much currently. The font... well... it definitely looks like the official font. I think it works fine for the names of the seas. The other names might need changing to make them more clear.

@Cireon, thanks for all the valuable feedback. The region colours are temporary and I have ideas of what to do with them, but always like suggestions. The Essos region will have all its mountains and forests soon, I put a hold on most of the graphics to start on game play, which shouldn't normally be this much graphics, but I've set it up to all be easily edited. From Vexers suggestion, I have added the wall as a graphic impassable and from some of the pictures I've seen, it's an 'ice wall' if I'm not mistaken? So I blended it with the Wilding as I believe it would be more of a frontier if it was ice. I can enlarge the anchors. Lots have been removed. I changed the label font, colour & size from earlier suggestions and kept the sea labels just as you suggested... You're a mind reader! Do you just want the castle positions marked with a castle symbol or various miniature graphic castles set at the same angle as the rest of the graphics? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Some changes: I have added some connections in order to reduce the ports otherwise the game play will be manic. I have changed the territory label font, colour and size. I have made a graphic Ice Wall as an impassable in the North and coloured Wilding to suit the ice land. Some other things that escape me now, but I'll put version 1 & 2 together so that you'll all be able to see the differences. Remember, it still has to have many more mountains, hills and forests and the region colours will be more subtle. I would really like some game play thoughts and suggestions if possible? [spoiler=Westeros 1][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/Westeros_1.png[/img][/spoiler][spoiler=Westeros 2][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/Westeros_2.png[/img][/spoiler]

amazing so far! unfamiliar with the series, and the other d12 westeros map as I didn't play it much, but that wall is making me curious about it.

Lol, so, the wall is there? In the other map it was a river with two bridges...

Some shots of the wall from the tv series: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/GoTWall.jpg http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110426113725/gameofthrones/images/9/97/The_Wall_from_the_south.jpg http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110305193555/gameofthrones/images/f/f5/The_Wall.jpg And this is a shot of the wall from the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7L2PVdrb_8]introduction sequence[/url]: http://cdn2.artofthetitle.com/assets/sm/upload/d4/29/6p/s6/got_wall_final.jpg --- I don't really want to comment on gameplay. That is not really my thing. From what I can tell there is a really nice mix of regions. The connectivity seems fine too. But take my words with a grain of salt, I am not an expert.

Blech. While the original has some graphic and gameplay issues, I think it's awesome that there's a lot of the smaller towns/castles in in from the book. I know that leads to 'mountains' and 'forests' tiles, and way too long to boot, but it makes it more of a special map. Plus you're adding Essos to the Westeros map :P I LOVE your trees and your mountains!!! And your river's are so fractally! Like that you have the original 7 Kingdoms. But if you're doing that, every territory in Essos should be it's own region... Maybe some kind of gimmick over there? Maybe instead of having a fixed bonus, maybe you get +1 for each two territories you gain? Move Volantis closer to the shore, where it should be, cut off the Eastern part of Pentos and make a Rhoyne territory (or Mother Rhoyne or Golden Fields, or Chroyane or The Sorrows) out of what's left to even make it even. Which would give you a good excuse to get rid of Ibben, which is nowhere near the North. Just make Skagos part of the Beyond the Wall. I don't know what you would call that region, there's a couple names, but Wildlings it should not be. I know it's tiny, but you should really include Dragonstone in the Crownlands. It's where the Targaryens actually came from. Felwood should be Summerhall. I'd make Kingsgrave into Yronwood. Summerhall and Yronwood play a larger part in the books. Yronwood is the second strongest Dornish house after the Martells. Goldentooth is loyal to the Westerlands, or at least neutral. I'd change it to Raventree Hall (which is closest to your territory) or Seagard, which is a major city just north. It's Silverhill, not Silverhall, and I'd rename it to Crakehall anyhow, more of a known name. The Barrowlands looks like the Borrowlands in that font lol. You could just name it Barrowtown, there's a city there. NO WINTERFELL?????? SHAME!!!!! Should be where you have Lonely Hills. The Grey Hills should be the Grey Cliffs, Karhold, or The Dreadfort. It's actual territory is the Grey Cliffs, and Karhold is right there, but The Dreadfort should probably be included somewhere in the North. Queenscrown is one word and is part of the Gift and is abandoned (although so is Summerhall, so you can ignore that part of the suggestions lol). Those mountains are where the mountain clans Liddle, Wull, and Norrey all live. But you never hear about their towns or what the mountains are called and 'Mountain clans' doesn't sound good either. Love the font. The texture's a little blah, but without the final colors... eh, who knows lol. It's hard to see the impassable mountains between Oldtown and Starfell, but that again is probably just color/texture issue. The anchor at Felwood is ambiguous, not sure which territory it should actually be with. Whew, sorry for the nerdsplosion, but this is my jam. (I had a freudian slip there and wrote 'this is my ham', so it must be lunchtime!)

Thank you Cireon & naathim for all the very helpful feedback. Where were you guys when I started this, I really needed you to save me many days of research... some of which turned out to be duff information as I now learn LOL. Having not seen any of the programs or read any of the books, trying to make this map factual as well as graphically nice has deprived me of about 18 hours sleep in 4 days. Hopefully if I can keep you 2 on board everyday with more suggestions and factual info, I can speed this up and concentrate a lot more on getting all the mountains, hills, colours and forests added? I think I have met everything suggested / requested. [spoiler=Westeros 3][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/map_resources/Westeros_3.png[/img][/spoiler]

I hate to ask, but why such a durastic change from the original map?